Toccata Classics TOCC 0145 Notes
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P PERCY SHERWOOD: COMPLETE WORKS FOR CELLO AND PIANO by Joseph Spooner I have received a letter from Mr. Edward Lawrance, of Merthyr Tydfil, calling my attention to the merits of an English musician, Mr. Percy Sherwood, now resident in Dresden. My correspondent’s idea is to make this stray lamb of the English fold better known at home. He writes: ‘If some publisher could be induced to look at, and bring out some of his works, or he could be invited to play at Queen’s Hall, at the Crystal Palace, or elsewhere, it would, I venture to say, bring honour to his helpers’. Mr. Percy Sherwood’s best course is to come to London with his works. That done, influential persons will be able to form an independent judgment. Joseph Bennett, The Musical Times, December 18971 Bennett’s correspondent, Edward Lawrance (1836–1900), was a published composer and indeed, enter it for the irst organist who had studied in Leipzig and so had first-hand experience of trying to gain a foothold in England after a Continental training. In Brown and Stratton’s British Musical Biography2 Lawrance is said to be Percy Sherwood’s uncle; more recent genealogical research shows this assertion to be inaccurate, but a link with the Sherwoods cannot be ruled out. Percy’s immediate forebears were not musicians: his grandfather was the horse-trainer Ralph Henry Sherwood (1803–c. 1883), who lived at Downs House in Epsom and trained the first Epsom 1 ‘Facts, Rumours and Remarks’, Vol. 38, No. 658, p. 814. the irst scores to be published will be Percy Sherwood’s 2 James D. Brown and Stephen S. Stratton, S. S. Stratton, Birmingham, 1897, p. 370. Further details of Sherwood’s early life and family , in an edition by Joseph Spooner. Others will include Dvořák’s may be found in other dictionaries of musical biography, although these sources are not necessarily consistent with one another: cf., for example, T. Baker, Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1st edn., Schirmer, New York, 1900, p. 544; Grove’s Dictionary of Music Op. 83, transcribed for violin and piano by Josef Suk, Ernst’s and Musicians, 2nd edn., 5 vols., Macmillan, London, 1904–10, here Vol. IV (1908), pp. 441–42; T. Baker, Biographical Dictionary of edition by Sherban Lupu and Friedrich Herrmann’s transcription of Beethoven’s Septet Musicians, 3rd edn., Schirmer, New York, 1919, pp. 871–72; Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edn., 9 vols., Macmillan, as a viola sonata, edited by Paul Silverthorne. London, 1954, here Vol. VII, p. 759. Other sources – those not available in the United Kingdom (for example, the Dresdner Anzeiger) or British journals and newspapers that have not been digitised (he Hampstead and Highgate Express, for instance) – may reveal more information to a future biographer of Sherwood. Sources not otherwise referenced here are to be found in the family archive. 2 horse to win the Derby. Ralph’s son Thomas (1838–1923) would also become a trainer, and Thomas’ two eldest sons briefly attended the local Epsom College.3 Ralph’s son John (b. 1837), by contrast, was to become a lecturer in English at the University of Dresden and marry a singer, Auguste Koch.4 Their son Percy, born in Dresden on 23 May 1866, probably attended the Vitzthum-Gymnasium like his elder brother Clarence (b. 1863). Percy Sherwood subsequently trained for nearly four years in piano and composition at the Dresden Conservatoire, entering the institution on 1 September 1885 and graduating in both subjects on 1 April 1889.5 His principal teachers were Felix Draeseke (1835–1913) for composition, and Bertrand Roth (1855–1938), an important student of Liszt, for piano. It may be that Sherwood supported himself to some extent by checking proofs of sheet music and books: a document in Percy’s hand gives a list of composers and works, together with ‘date fetched’ (the earliest being 8 October 1885), ‘[plate] number’, price, and ‘date delivered’ (the latest is 13 September 1887).6 Three of the four pages of Sherwood’s graduation certificate bear a truly glowing testimonial from his teachers and the directors of the Conservatoire. Sherwood is said to be highly musical, and to have applied himself conscientiously and enthusiastically throughout his student days, his determination tempered by receptiveness and modesty. He developed markedly as a composer through sheer hard work and force of will, even though he had arrived with only a moderate talent in this field, and as a pianist he combined a virtuoso technique with refined musicianship. Even in his subsidiary subjects – organ, conducting, score-playing, chamber music and choral studies – he shone, the dexterity and elegance of his conducting technique attracting particular attention. He gained special mentions in the ceremonies marking the ends of the academic years 1885–86 and 1886–87, was awarded the Director’s composition prize in 1886–87, won the top prize given by 3 Ralph Howard (1881–1963) and Lewis homas (1883–1970). 4 Name as given in Grove’s Dictionary, 5th edn., loc. cit. Her irst name was certainly Auguste: Percy Sherwood’s Kleine Poesien, Op. 5 (Ries & Erler, Berlin) for solo piano are ‘Meinen lieben Eltern John und Auguste Sherwood gewidmet’ (‘dedicated to my dear parents John and Auguste Sherwood’), and Clarence Sherwood names his mother so (cf. note 32, p. 9, below); on her calling cards she is ‘Mrs John Sherwood’. I was unable to trace an Auguste Koch in the standard sources. 5 hese dates are taken from Sherwood’s Reife-Zeugniss (graduation certiicate) and are not those found in the standard sources; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Music and Papers of Percy Sherwood (hereinater ‘Bodleian’), Adds. box 1. 6 Bodleian, Adds. box 1. he list runs to four full pages, so it is possible it was once longer. he works consist mainly of full scores and reductions of orchestral works for piano duet. Athough the range of composers speciied is unsurprising for the period, the exact nature of this document is not yet clear: some works do not have (plate) numbers, some are described as ‘new’, and some appear twice. 3 the Conservatoire in 1887–88 and 1888–89, and in a competition in 1886–87 won a grand piano donated by an anonymous art-lover.7 After graduating, Sherwood went on to achieve considerable success on the Continent, performing, composing and conducting.8 He married Charlotte C. Whittle (d. 19369), and they had one child, Therese Charlotte Howes Sherwood, born 21 June 1897.10 Her arrival was celebrated with the composition of Baby’s Birthday March,11 and studio photographs of her were taken throughout her childhood. An important source of income for Sherwood would have been his teaching at the Conservatoire, which was flourishing at this period.12 The trajectory of his career there is not entirely clear: he may have begun teaching as early as 1890, having been appointed to a professorship in 1893; in 1911 he was granted the honorific ‘Königlicher Professor’ (‘Royal Professor’).13 Sherwood appears to have been very popular with his students, as red sashes given in gratitude by his students survive from the late 1890s.14 Sherwood also taught privately the eminent Croatian composer Dora Pejačević (1885–1923), who would dedicate to him her Walzer-Capricen of 1910. 7 What may be the two certiicates for the Conservatoire’s top prize also survive, the irst dated 25 March 1885 and the second 31 March 1889; Bodleian, Adds. box 1. he irst of these dates must be an error, as Sherwood did not enter the Conservatoire until the autumn of 1885; ‘25 March 1885’ was perhaps written because the writer had just speciied ‘1885’ as the year of Sherwood’s entry. 8 He is given as directing the Neustädter Chorgesangverein (Dresden Choral Society) in some sources. An early concert tour was undertaken in 1889, when Sherwood accompanied the eminent Hungarian soprano Etelka Gerster (1855–1920) and a cellist, Miss Lewy Campbell; ‘Music and Drama’, Boston Evening Transcript, Saturday 14 December 1889, p. 15. 9 I have not yet been able to establish her date of birth. 10 Charlotte Sherwood’s mother’s surname was Howes. 11 Bodleian, MSS. Mus., box c.404/1. 12 ‘English Music in Dresden’, he Musical Times, Vol. 41, No. 685, March 1900, p. 164. 13 he trajectory given here is the sum of various (English-language) sources. Teacher of pianoforte and score-reading from 1890: Baker, 1st edn., Baker, 3rd edn. Appointment as professor in 1883: Brown and Stratton, Grove, 2nd edn.; cf. ‘Music in Manchester. I’, Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Tuesday 22 October 1895, p. 5, where Sherwood is described as professor. Appointment as Royal Professor: Baker 3rd edn.; cf. also ‘In the World of Music’, he Milwaukee Journal, 18 August 1911, p. 6: ‘Percy Sherwood, the American [sic] pianist and composer living in Dresden, has been oicially dubbed professor of music by the king of Saxony’. Grove, 5th edn. confusingly describes Sherwood as a teacher from 1893, and gives the year of his appointment as professor (not Royal Professor) as 1911. 14 here are four sashes in the Bodleian, Adds. box 1. (1) Approx. 145 x 18 cm. No writing. (2) Approx. 200 x 18 cm. ‘Die Conservatorium Schüler / In dankbarer Verehrung’ (‘he Conservatoire students, in grateful admiration’). (3) Approx. 200 x 20 cm, now in three parts. ‘Ihrem Meister in hoher Verehrung / Gewidmet von seinen Schülern des K(öni)gl(ichen) Conservatoriums Dresden 3. November 1896’ (‘Dedicated to their master in great admiration by his students at the Royal Conservatoire, Dresden ...’).